Cy-Fair ISD may drop 7th-graders from sex-ed classes

The Cypress-Fairbanks Independent School District told parents Tuesday that its new "abstinence-plus" sex education program, which has prompted complaints from some parents, will be reviewed and may not be taught to seventh-graders this school year.

The announcement goes a step further than the district's decision last week to push the last four lessons of the 12-lesson seventh-grade curriculum into the eighth grade. Superintendent Mark Henry announced that change in a letter to parents on Friday, but some parents said it didn't go far enough.

The "It's Your Game" program developed by the University of Texas Prevention Research Center in Houston came under fire from hundreds of parents who said the material was too sexually explicit and inappropriate for their 12-year-old students. The curriculum will now be reviewed by a local health advisory council made up of staff and parents.

The program was scheduled to begin at the end of October, but the sex education curriculum has been postponed until the spring, said a letter sent to parents Tuesday.

Linda Macias, associate superintendant of curriculum and instruction, said the district has not decided whether the program will be eliminated. If the panel and district decide to keep it, then the final four lessons still will be pushed back to the eighth grade.